We are all being duped.

How are we to make sense of what is going on in Syria.

Claim and counter claim are made by the diplomats on either side of the conflict. Diplomats I must add representing neither of the, 'on the ground combatants' but rather their proxy masters Russia and America. The "suits" sit and read their scripts in the United Nations, as if the world in which they exist was one of simple expediency, to counter the savage tactics used by the other side.
The treaty's which were recently signed to bring the fighting to a pause so that humanitarian aid could be brought into Aleppo, an aid convoy which was tragically attacked and destroyed, an act which has not only brought great sadness to all those who care but a restoration of the senseless killing of innocent people.
But then not everyone cares, in fact one would be forgiven in believing the opposite as one listens to the carefully crafted words spoken to such an august gathering of diplomats, telling a different story, each side seemingly living in a parallel universe. A writer of fiction would find it hard to make up a story with any sense of reality.

Listening to the detailed analysis made from Russia's point of view, they clearly find loop holes in the statement made by John Kerry to the UN Council. One glaring example was Kerry's denial of the existence of the military vehicle clearly seen driving alongside the aid convoy prior to the attack. The Russians also pointed out other attacks, one of which was made on a hospital by the Americans and another on the Syrian Army by the RAF. The American and British news channels are full of counter claim pointing the finger at Russia using the analysis of their own experts to provide their own surety.

Who to believe, in what has always been the dirty world of propaganda and mis-information. Experts denying black is white, people who manufacture images, and spend their time distorting the truth, who's job it is to create a picture to sell for public consumption irrespective of factuality.
It's going on on all sides, "disinformation". By each government, ones own government, as well as the enemy.
It raises the question. "Who are the enemy". If trust is manipulated and truth has no currency. Is our blind faith in our own side not misguided does the spirit of Joseph Goebbels live on in our own institutions. The German people of the Third Reich were not dummy's, they believed what they wanted to believe, just as we do.
We are all complicity in going along with the manipulation of facts if the story line makes us out to be the good guy. We simply can't face the possibility of being tagged the aggressor even though recent history in Iraq revealed a contrivance of events and information by President Bush, Cheney his Vice President and Donald Rumsfeld co-ably supported by Tony Blair, regarding the supposed stockpile of Yellowcake Uranium by the Iraq's, which was the main thrust of going to war.
The war claimed many casualties but one of the most troubling was that of David Kelly one of the investigatory team sent to Iraq to investigate whether Iraq had the potential to make weapons of mass destruction. Kelly had disagreed with the British authorities that the Iraq's were in a position to make such a weapon but after his decision to disclose his fears to The BBC's Andrew Gilligan he was hounded by the establishment and apparently committed suicide. Lord Huttons report on his death which was initially  sealed to be kept secret for 70 years revealed an inadequate finding, no autopsy and the suspicion that the method he was supposed to have used to kill himself would not have been sufficient. Given his enemies Tony Blair, the Security Authorities, Alister Campbell and many others in their pursuance of reasons to go to war at any cost, his death to this day is cloaked in innuendo.
So you see in visiting  the "Great Illusionist" fact becomes misted, reality becomes supposition and we leave the theatre non the wiser other than the feeling that we have all been duped !!!